Lawino Staring Down at Clementine: Designing Politics in These Days Of “My Dress, My Choice”

Abstract

In the wake of the 2014 “my dress, my choice” activism that campaigned against violence towards women in Kenya, and especially for justice in the case of two women who were stripped naked and assaulted at the time in Nairobi, this paper teases out the perception in Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino that there can be a pure, or unadulterated African dress sense. The paper rehashes ideas about the authentic, untangled, African design that belongs to Lawino’s imagination of the ideal Acholi woman’s dress sense, or design. It argues that pitted against a perceived westernized sense of design, such as is preferred by Clementine, Lawino’s choice need not necessarily seem to want to establish a sense of dominance; rather, it could interact with aspects of Clementine’s choices to produce a hybrid worth discussing. But how would this affect the practical approach employed by a designer of a modern day staged performance of Song of Lawino? Firstly, this paper suggests that design is political and so, in this case, should embrace that element through an inspection of the politics of Lawino vis-à-vis those presented through Clementine’s dress sense or choice. Secondly, it posits that aesthetics must necessarily be reconciled within the practicalities of the day. For example, can there be a re-imagination of the place of Lawino’s “tattoos on my breasts / and the tattoos below my belly button…”? Through a discussion on possible political ramifications of Lawino’s sense of the authentic, within present day sensibilities, the paper interacts, of necessity, with the notion of what a present day African, Kenyan or Ugandan, can imagine herself to be. The interactions that breed ideas such as “decently” dressed, on the one hand, and playing risqué, on the other, are discussed in light of their choices as political stances.